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Kzinti
The Kzinti were a species of aggressive, carnivorous, feline humanoids from the planet Kzin. History Prior to 2269, the Kzinti fought four wars with humankind, and lost all of them. In the course of these conflicts, some Kzinti fed on human meat. The last such war took place in the late 21st century. that the last war between Kzinti and humans "was 200 years ago" from the standpoint of 2269. It is not known whether this was an exact figure or an approximation. In Larry Niven's original Known Space Universe which provided source material for this episode, the first war was fought with sublight vessels and the Kzinti could only be defeated because of Earth acquiring FTL travel, but Star Trek: First Contact establishes that Earth's first recognized encounter with extraterrestrials occurred immediately after Zephram Cochrane's warp flight in 2063, and establishes that the titular probe was launched in 2067 with humans having "no idea" what threats lay in space, so these Kzinti wars were unlikely to have been fought before that point.}} ]]Following the signing of the Treaty of Sirius, the Kzinti were forbidden all weapons apart from police vessels. ( ) In 2269, Dr. Keniclius 5 cited the need to subdue the depredations of hostile species including the Kzinti as a justification for his plan to create a "master race" consisting of an army of giant Spock clones. ( ) Among the members of the Elysian Council in the Delta Triangle was a Kzin. ( ) Later in 2269, Kzinti archaeologists discovered two Slaver stasis boxes on Kzin. One was turned over to Starfleet, and one the Kzinti kept for themselves, only to find it empty. With the secret support of the Kzinti government, a plan to reacquire the other box was devised, one which would be disavowed by the Highest of Kzin in the event of its failure. crew]]On stardate 4187.3, as the ''USS Enterprise'''s long-range shuttle Copernicus was transporting the other box to Starbase 25, a group of Kzinti privateers led by Chuft Captain and operating from the "stolen" police vessel Traitor's Claw ''lured the shuttle to a small icebound world in the Beta Lyrae system, using the empty box as bait. In illegal possession of phasers, they ambushed the shuttle's crew of three, imprisoning them in a police web and confiscating the unopened box in hopes of finding within it a weapon. A Slaver weapon was indeed found among the box's contents, but its variable functions initially frustrated and confused the Kzinti. When the privateers unwittingly nullified the effect of their own police web in testing one of its settings, Commander Spock and Lieutenant Sulu were able to escape with the weapon, wounding Chuft Captain in the process. The Kzinti offered a bargain in which they would trade the life of their remaining prisoner, Lieutenant Uhura, for the return of the weapon, on the condition that Spock face Chuft in personal combat and allow him to regain his honor. This offer was refused, but the Kzinti regained the weapon anyway when Spock and Sulu inadvertently unlocked its most powerful setting, and were knocked unconscious in the process, allowing them to be recaptured. Ultimately, the Kzinti were undone in their efforts to use the weapon themselves by its own reasoning intelligence. Determining itself to have fallen into enemy hands, the weapon engaged a self-destruct mechanism, killing the privateers and severely damaging their vessel. ( ) Physiology The Kzinti were bipedal digitigrade felines with orange fur, yellow eyes, pronounced fangs, ears resembling bat wings, four-fingered hands, and long tails. Males stood over two meters tall, with broad hunching shoulders and comparatively slender waists and limbs. Their internal anatomy included ribs with vertical bracing and multiple hearts. The breathed atmosphere similar to that of humans and Vulcans. They were carnivores, and acutely averse to the consumption of plants. ]]Some male Kzinti were capable of reading minds; the effort required was taxing and took time to recover from, often leaving such individuals unhappy and neurotic. There was no sure way to guard one's thoughts from such a telepath, but the experience could be made especially uncomfortable by placing images distasteful or alien to Kzinti, such as eating a raw vegetable, in one's mind. ( ) Culture The Kzinti were an aggressive, war-like race, disdainful of herbivorous species such as Vulcans, and with only marginally more respect for omnivorous ones such as humans. Kzinti females were considered "dumb animals" without intelligence, and Kzinti males were thus predisposed to underestimate females of other species. Kzinti placed great importance on individual honor, being obliged to seek personal revenge upon an attacker before calling for help. To be defeated or wounded and left alive was considered the ultimate insult to a Kzin. This could only be remedied by single combat to the death. The Kzinti had superstitions and legends about weapons being haunted by their deceased owners, of which some were frightened. The Kzinti government was led by the Highest of Kzin. They had police vessels and related equipment for the enforcing of laws, but were disallowed all other weapons by the Treaty of Sirius, yet sought ways of circumventing this and rearming. Other pursuits in which Kzinti engaged included archaeology and astronomy. ( ) People * Chuft Captain * Kzinti Telepath * Kzin councilor Appendices See also * Caitian * Kzinretti * Worene's species Background information Unlike the other alien antagonists of ''Star Trek, the Kzinti species was an original creation developed independently of the television production, well before their appearances in the animated series. Science fiction author Larry Niven's Kzinti were introduced as part of his Known Space universe in "The Warriors," a short story published in 1966. According to D.C. Fontana in the featurette "Drawn To The Final Frontier" included on the DVD release of the animated series, the pink coloration of the Kzinti uniforms and ship in was a result of director Hal Sutherland being colorblind, and thus unable to discern them as anything but shades of gray. Although Kzinti naming conventions were not explicitly discussed in , the naming conventions of the characters in the episode correspond to creator Larry Niven's descriptions of this in various stories. According to Niven, the Kzinti are not named at birth; they must earn their names through valorous deeds, typically ones that advance the interests of the Patriarchy. Unnamed Kzinti have lower status, and are referred to by the name of their profession, as was Telepath. Single-named Kzinti have distinguished themselves in some manner. They often follow their awarded name with the name of their profession, as did Chuft Captain. Kzinti can accumulate multiple names if they continue to perform valorously. According to The Worlds of the Federation by Shane Johnson, the Caitian homeworld is believed to be an ancient Kzinti colony. Caitians are however peaceful in nature contrary to their cousins. These data points reflect the information first published in a biography of M'Ress that was available through Lincoln Enterprises. as the "Cat Woman"]] The Kzinti made no further onscreen appearances in Star Trek after "The Slaver Weapon," though a female felinoid seen in was referred to in backstage information as a "Kzinretti." "Kzinrretti" (with two "r"'s) is actually plural of "Kzinrret", the official term for Kzinti females. A star map seen in several TNG episodes and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country includes Kzin. It has often been said that an unseen species mentioned in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode – the "Tzenkethi", a near-anagram of "The Kzinti" – were supposed as a replacement. Robert Hewitt Wolfe said that he combined the name "Kzinti" with "Tsankth", a race from the RuneQuest and HeroQuest RPGs, in naming the Tzenkethi. Wolfe also notes that he did not picture the Tzenkethi as looking like the Kzinti, but as "heavily armored lizards". In Jimmy Diggs tried to pitch a CGI animation adventure in feature length entitled Star Trek: The Lions of the Night in which the crew of the under command of Captain Sulu was facing an invasion fleet. The project however didn't go very far, even though it had the support of Larry Niven and the Roddenberry estate. If Star Trek: Enterprise had been renewed for a fifth season, Manny Coto wanted to do a Kzinti episode. Much of the concept for the episode "Kilkenny Cats" (which was based on a story by Neal and Jana Hallford) was to draw from the earlier concept Star Trek: Lions of the Night by Jimmy Diggs. D.C. Fontana and André Bormanis were also involved in the editing of the script. Kzinti starship]]To get the producers convinced a "rough rendering" of a Kzinti starship based on the movies era Dark Stalker was produced for possible use. The artist Josh Finney said that he was "...commissioned by writer Jimmy Diggs to design an ''Enterprise-era Kzinti cruiser as part of an overall pitch to Paramount." He further said "''As for my ship design, truth be told, Paramount's people would've probably re-designed it a billion times before it hit the screen. But, still, I would've at least provided the starting point for the concept." It is notable that the concept design of the Kzinti vessel draws considerably from the Kzinti fleet as presented in the Star Fleet Universe, which have a similar layout to the design shown, including the same triple warp nacelle layout and pod-mounted drone (missile) launchers. Jimmy Diggs did that on purpose, hence the three nacelles, but with more emphasis on creating a believable warship. The 2150s version combines aircraft and submarines of World War II (see here). Apocrypha Kzinti in novels Star Trek Log 5 by Alan Dean Foster begins with a flashback scene of M'Ress' career in Starfleet. Among one of the events is her time as a junior communications officer aboard the : The starship was attacked by a Kzin cruiser, killing all of the bridge crew including the chief engineer, and crippling several systems including engines and communications. M'Ress, who speaks little Kzinti, volunteers to beam over to the cruiser which was disabled in the counterattack. The Kzinti are sending a distress call to their homebase which needs to be cut off and M'Ress' further plan is to recode it to send a distress call of their own to a Federation starbase. Her actions resulted in a promotion to lieutenant after just two years of service and the transfer to the Enterprise. The battle was mentioned in M'Ress' biography by Lincoln Enterprises where it is stated: "She entered Starfleet just three years ago", placing the event in 2266. The novelization of (in Star Trek Log 4), also mentions Kzinti, when Kirk ponders about the Edoans' ongoing neutrality despite the warlike Klingons, Romulans, and Kzinti nearby. The Pocket TOS novel Ishmael by Barbara Hambly contains a throw-away line to the Kzinti: The Starbase's commanding officer, Maria Kellogg, served as chief engineer of the before in her career. She was one of six Human crewmembers, the rest were Orions, Kzinti and Trisk. (Revealed in Chapter 7; story might be set during end of the five-year mission.) Later Kellogg and Kirk pass two Kzinti in the corridors of the station. Kellogg greets them in their native tongue. (Revealed in Chapter 13.) Other appearances The Kzinti also made brief appearances in the to ''Star Trek'' newspaper comic strip The Wristwatch Plantation by Sharman DiVono and Larry Niven with art by Ron Harris. The story involved Kzinti starting an invasion in the 2270s. The authors considered publishing the story as a novel or comic book, http://www.well.com/~sjroby/lostbooks.html#81wp but this did not happen. Kzinti in the Star Fleet Universe The Kzinti race in the Star Fleet Universe – which has traits setting them apart from the Kzin of Niven's works – has fought wars with all of their neighbors, the Federation, the Klingon Empire and their perennial nemesis, the Lyran Star Empire. They are long-standing allies – or more accurately, co-belligerents – of the Hydran Kingdoms. The Kzinti Hegemony eventually formed a tentative accord with the Federation, and allied with them in the General War, but they have been involved in major wars with the Klingons and Lyrans, such as the Four Powers War and the General War itself, in which a substantial region of their territory was occupied by their Coalition enemies and two full-scale assaults were made on the Kzinti homeworld of Kzintai. Eventually with Federation assistance they forced the Coalition forces from their territory, but after the war ended they were involved in a civil war as a disgruntled faction – which had been opposed to the Hegemony's ruling patriarch and sought refuge and developed a power base in the WYN Cluster, and launched an attempted coup of the Hegemony itself in the WYN War of Return. Also, in the fictional variant of the Star Fleet Universe as represented in the games Star Trek: Starfleet Command II: Empires at War and Star Trek: Starfleet Command - Orion Pirates from Taldren, the Kzinti were renamed and re-interpreted as the more canine Mirak. External links * * * *Kzinti culture at the semi-official homepage of Kzinti creator Larry Niven *Encyclopedia of Known Space * *Mirak race description at Taldren's site de:Kzinti ja:クジン Category:Species __FORCETOC__